SQL2012+ Core-Based Licensing

• Core based licensing is appropriate when customers are unable to count users/devices, have Internet/Extranet workloads or systems that integrate with external facing workloads.

• Standard Edition is limited to the lesser of 4 Sockets or 16 cores (or logical processors in a virtual environment).

• The "Core Factor Table" is not applicable to SQL Server starting with SQL Server 2016 (it was only valid for SQL2012 and SQL2014).

• A minimum of 4 core licenses are required for each physical processor on the server.

SQL2012+ Server & CAL Licensing

• Applies to: Standard Edition and Business Intelligence Edition

• License each individual server with a SQL Server license

• License each user or device accessing the server with a SQL Server CAL

When is core more cost efficient than server/CAL?...

SQL2008 Processor Licensing

• A "Processor" is the same as a "Socket" for SQL2008.

• In a virtualised environment, a "Processor" is the same as a "vCPU" or "logical processor".

• SQL Server 2008 is limited to 64 logical processors.

• SQL Server 2008 R2 on Windows Server 2008 R2 is limited to 256 logical processors.

• SQL Server 2008 R2 EE had a license limit of 8 physical processors. For more, you needed to run SQL Server 2008 R2 Data Center Edition.

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